PALLAS-YLLÄSTUNTURI
NATIONAL PARK GRAVEL LOOP
LOCATED IN REINDEER HERDING LAND
DISTANCE
278 km
% UNPAVED
67 %
DAYS
3-5
days
% SINGLETRACK
6 %
TOTAL ASCENT
2666 m
DIFFICULTY (1-10)
6
HIGHEST POINT
474 m
% RIDEABLE
100 %
The Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park Gravel Loop is a moderately easy 278km and 3-5 day gravel loop connecting the holiday villages of Levi, Pallas, Muonio and Ylläs in and about the southern part of the Pallas-Ylläs National Park. The route combines relaxed riding with great services, some fantastic camping and occasional views to the prominent higher fells of the oldest national park in Finland. If you have just a long weekend to ride or just want ride party pace, there is no better way to experience the Fjell Lapland area of the than hitting this one.
The initiative of protecting public lands for preservation and the enjoyment of the people was made first time in the Nordics by the Finnish-Swedish explorer Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in 1880. In Finland, Nordernskiöld’s initiative started a 60-year public debate and a process of tackling the legal obstacles on the way of creating protected public lands. Finally in 1938, the first four national parks and six biological reserves were established. One of the first national parks in Finland was the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park, as its name stands today. The national park is known mostly for it’s continuous south-east lined fells, consisting of some of the highest fell peaks in the country with treeless rocky tops with views far to the arctic taiga.
The Arctic Post Road MTB Route is the best way to experience the high fells bikepacking, but the route is physically and technically very demanding and not for everyone. Luckily, there are some fantastic gravel roads in and around the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park as well, which can be combined into a 278 km and 3-5 day loop hopping from the holiday village to another with some pristine and tranquil nature in between service centers.
The route starts from the village of Sirkka, which hosts the holiday center of Levi, and follows the gravel-rig-friendly parts of the Ylläs-Levi MTB Route until reaching relatively traffic-free paved side road through the southern part of the Pallas-Ylläs National Park area. The holiday village of Äkäslompolo by the Ylläs fell offers a nice set of services and ales, before the route takes rougher forest road and just-about-rideable single track out of the village along the River Äkäs and then deep into reindeer herding areas between Ylläs and Muonio on some varying conditions gravel roads.
Out of the national park, the occasionally straight forward logging road sections are rewarded with crystal clear spring lakes for a swim and publicly managed fire rings for a break and enjoying a campfire. Harjujärvet, a little before reaching the services of the Muonio village at the Finnish-Swedish border, offers excellent camping by a lake, if you’re not continuing to the village for the night.
The highest point of the route at 475m is located in the national park and just about at the treeline at Mustavaara with great views to the Pallas area fells, if you’re not heading to the Pallas Hotel itself, which is located spectacularly right at the Pallas fells. Pallas fells as well as the Lake Pallas next to it are very famous day-trip destinations, but leaving the Lake Pallas, you’re unlikely to see anyone again for a half-a-day until reaching the buzz of the Levi area again.
Overall, the route offers a well-balanced and logistically easy riding with some spectacular nature and occasionally remote-feeling back roads while still having high quality services regularly on the way. It’s also one of the shortest routes of the Arctic by Cycle Bikepacking Route Network, so if getting on a loaded bike for the first time, this one is pretty hard to beat…
Read more about the route and what it has to offer in the Trail notes below….
REINDEER HERDING & ROUTE OPENING TIME
Early June - 15th of September
No limitations to the start of the bikepacking season have been requested by the local reindeer herding community, so the route is open whenever the gravel is dry and hard enough to ride. However, it has been requested to avoid the section between Äkäslompolo and Äkäsaivo due to reindeer round-ups in the area 15th of September onwards. If riding the route after the reindeer round-ups have started, there is a short cut road, which can be used to avoid the area, but would also cut off the whole Äkäslompolo village all together. Therefore, it’s best to get the timing right to enjoy the route in full.
What are reindeer round-ups?
The autumn reindeer herding work consists of reindeer round-ups when the rutting season starts. The reindeer are gathered into herds of up to thousands, and then to fences by foot, motorcycles, ATVs for the selection of individuals for meat. Read more about the autumn round-ups here.
For general guidelines for trekking and camping in the reindeer herding area, check here.
Photos: Taneli Roininen
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The old growth-forests and the views to the high prominent fells of the Pallas-Yllästunturi National park.
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High quality services of the well-known holiday centers and occasionally in between as well
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Gravel-rig-friendly trails of the Ylläs-Levi MTB Route are a really nice ride and there are some pleasant wilderness huts on the way too
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Remote-feeling gravel roads between the service centers are pretty remote as well and they don’t have much traffic at all
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Hannukainen lean-to and Harjujärvi offer fantastic camping, though by the everyone’s right allows camping pretty much anywhere outside the national park, where camping is strictly forbidden outside the official sites.
